Computer shutdown - hardware problem

Wait a minute. You said that the Western Digital drive was the C drive in your post Nov 23 6:36PM and the Maxtor (D) is the slave. That would mean that the Maxtor is the bad drive.

To be sure what is what, double check by doing 2 things. Go into the control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management. Try to match the specs to what you see there. For example: You said that the Maxtor was 60GB. Look for that.

A second way to be sure is look at the ribbon cables that connect to the drive. The master drive is usually on the last connector at the end of the cable and the slave on the middle connector.

Just be sure that you don't remove the wrong drive. If the slave is bad, you won't have to reinstall the OS.

I actually said that MAXTOR was a good drive and the master one since the master one is a good drive according to my computer. Here is my reasoning behind this...

My computer says that DRIVE D is the bad one...
According to Disk Management DRIVE D is DISK 0
MAXTOR passed the diagnostics...
The other drive failed the test...
The diagnostic program labeled the bad drive DISK 1 and MAXTOR as DISK 2.

According to DISK management both of the drives are healthy... both drives have the same size... both are NTFS...

I understand what you're saying now. There is a conflict between disk management and the diagnostic software as far as the labeling goes.

As long as your sure which drive is the bad drive then you're ready to replace it. If you're replacing the drive with system files on it, then back up your data and do the install.

You can always connect that bad drive to any PC in the future by using an external USB HD enclosure just in case there was something that you missed in the backup.

Okay. Thanks

OKAY! My computer got tired of me and now it doesn't turn on... it says some message that I had forgotten what it is at the moment. I'm using another computer... I guess you'll be able to help me better once I tell you what the message actually is...

That's correct. The error message is needed.

Here it is... I finally got access to a computer A long wait

I just found this site dealing with the exact problem I have (Number 7). How do I run fixboot and fixmbr when I have the message? How do I get to command prompt? Thanks for the help and information everyone I greatly appreciate it

And what if I don't know the window's administrative password?

[EDIT] Nevermind... this page helped me [/EDIT]

It didn't help me... I still need help a little...

I somewhat solved the problem by buying a new hard drive and I have trouble setting the jumpers... I changed my master driver (the good drive) and I want my master drive as a slave drive but the master drive has the windows installed on it... How do I make my new drive as a single drive... and take away the slave drive (the bad one)?

Thanks...

If you bought a new drive and you want it to be the master, then you have to install Windows or some other OS on it. After that, then you can use the original drive as storage space or copy what ever you need from it.

That's what I want and that is what I am actually doing The only problem is... I removed the faulty drive and exchanged it with a drive that was a good one and put the new drive as a master drive. I formatted the new master drive and placed the OS CD in it (Windows XP Proffesional). It comes to a screen that says press spacebar to boot from a floppy or press c to boot from CD. I press C since I am using a CD and then it prints a line that says Place CD in CD-ROM and press spacebar when ready when I press spacebar it prints a line that says "Booting from CD..." and then right after that line another line prints saying... "NTLDR is missing... press CLTR+ALT+DEL to restart."

Any help?

I've never seen the NTLDR error message when booting from a CD. It has to be bypassing the CD boot and going to the HD. Go into the BIOS again and make sure the boot sequence is correct. Put the CDROM as the first boot device.

I did that... I even specified it to log on from the "Removable Devices" and it still shows me that message.

Log on? We're talking about booting from a CDROM. What does log on have to do with it and why is your CDROM listed as a removable device? Is it an external drive?

It was my mistake I got it fixed now I'm all hyped up right now. My removable device was a floppy and I was making a mistake on clicking on it and I accidentally exchanged my master drive (the good one) and left the bad one in place I changed it today and booted from my master drive and I'm back online with 289 gigs on my other drive although it should be 320 gigs... any reason for that? Thanks for you help Don it was sure an enlightening adventure